Marijuana legalized in Washington, Colorado, but still banned on college campuses

University of Washington students walk between classes in Seattle in October. While marijuana use is about to become legal in Washington and Colorado, federal laws and college rules of conduct will keep pot illegal on campuses.
Elaine Thompson / The Associated Press

SPOKANE -- Young voters helped pass laws legalizing marijuana in Washington and Colorado, but many still won't be able to light up legally on campus.

Most universities have codes of conduct banning marijuana use, and they get millions of dollars in funding from the federal government, which still considers pot illegal.

With the money comes a requirement for a drug-free campus, and the threat of expulsion for students using pot in the dorms.

So despite college cultures that include pot-smoking demonstrations each year on April 20, students who want to use marijuana will have to do so off campus.

"The first thing you think of when you think of legalized marijuana is college students smoking it," said Anna Marum, a Washington State senior from Kelso. "It's ironic that all 21-year-olds in Washington can smoke marijuana except for college students."

Voters in November made Washington and Colorado the first states to allow people over 21 to possess up to an ounce of marijuana. Exit polling showed both measures had significant support from younger voters.

Taxes could bring the states, which can set up licensing schemes for pot growers, processors and retail stores, tens or hundreds of millions of dollars a year, financial analysts say.

But the laws are fraught with complications, especially at places like college campuses. At Washington State, students who violate the code face a variety of punishments, up to expulsion, Watkins said.

The same is true in Boulder at the University of Colorado, where the student code of conduct prohibits possessing, cultivating or consuming illegal drugs.

Even if conduct codes did not exist, the fact that marijuana remains illegal under federal law is a key reason that campuses will remain cannabis-free.

The Drug Free Schools and Communities Act requires that any university receiving federal funds adopt a program to prevent the use of illicit drugs by students and employees, much in the same way other federal funding for law enforcement and transportation comes with clauses stipulating that recipients maintain drug-free workplaces.

Washington State, for instance, receives millions in federal research funds each year, which prohibits it from allowing substances illegal under federal law on campus.

College dormitory contracts tend to prohibit possession of drugs, officials said. Dorms and other campus buildings also tend to be smoke-free zones, which would block the smoking of marijuana, officials said.

With all these complications, it is reasonable to expect that some students will be confused by the new laws.

Derrick Skaug, student body vice president at Washington State, said he believes most students will understand they cannot consume marijuana on campus.

"I don't see it likely that people will be smoking marijuana while walking around campus," Skaug said. "Most people do understand that just because it is no longer banned by state law, it doesn't amount to a get-out-of-jail-free pass."

Colleges in Washington already dealt with this issue in 1998, when the state approved the use of medical marijuana, which was also banned on campus, Watkins said.

Students who wanted to use marijuana for medical reasons had to live off-campus, and Washington State waived its requirement that all freshmen had to live in dorms to accommodate them, Watkins said.

Some off-campus police departments have said they will no longer arrest or ticket students who are 21 and older and using marijuana.

In Boulder and Seattle, prosecutors have said they will not prosecute marijuana cases for less than an ounce for people 21 and over.